Tumblr

Tumblr is a place on the internet where people can share short posts with pictures, videos, and other types of media. It started in 2007 by a man named David Karp. The company behind Tumblr is called Automattic.

People use Tumblr to share their thoughts, art, stories, and more with others. Because many different kinds of people use Tumblr, it has lots of creative and unique content.

Tumblr has also gotten attention for some of the discussions and topics that appear on the site, making it an important part of online conversations today.

History

Tumblr was started by David Karp in 2007. It lets people share pictures, videos, and other content on small blogs. It became very popular quickly.

In 2013, a big company called Yahoo bought Tumblr. Some users were unhappy about this change. Later, Yahoo was bought by Verizon. Verizon sold Tumblr to Automattic, the company behind WordPress, in 2019. Today, Tumblr continues to operate, focusing on its basic features.

Features

The dashboard is Tumblr's main tool. It shows new posts from blogs you follow. You can comment, share, and like posts. You can also add text, pictures, videos, quotes, or links to your own blog. You can connect your blog to your Twitter and Facebook accounts so your posts show up there too.

You can plan when your posts will go live. You can also add tags so people can find posts about certain topics. Tumblr lets you change how your blog looks using HTML. You can also get a custom web address for your blog.

Tumblr works on many devices. There are apps for iPhone and Android phones. You can send questions to other blogs, either with your name or anonymously. Tumblr also lets users chat with each other.

Some older features like special story blogs and group chats are no longer available.

Usage

Tumblr is known for its users who share progressive views. In 2011, it was very popular with teenagers and college students. Half of its visitors were under 25 years old. In April 2013, the website had more than 13 billion global page views.

User activity, measured by the number of blog posts each quarter, was highest in early 2014 with over 100 million posts. By October 2018, this number dropped to about 30 million.

As of May 2019, Tumblr hosted over 465 million blogs and more than 172 billion posts in total, with over 21 million new posts each day.

Members of Generation Z made up 48% of active users and 61% of new users, showing more activity on the platform.

LGBTQ+ content and community

Researchers have found that Tumblr is often used by LGBTQ+ groups to build communities and explore identity and gender expression. Before 2018, many transgender users shared their personal stories.

Keeping children safe

In 2018, Tumblr changed its rules about certain types of content. These changes were required by laws and also by rules from Apple for apps on the iOS App Store. The company said it wanted to keep the platform safe and fair for all users, especially its LGBTQ+ community.

In January 2022, Tumblr agreed to review its systems after concerns that the rules affected LGBTQ+ users unfairly. The company promised to improve how it handles appeals and trains its staff. In November 2022, Tumblr changed its rules again to allow some types of nudity, but not sexually explicit images.

Corporate affairs

Tumblr's main office was in New York City. The company also had an office in Richmond, Virginia. By June 1, 2017, Tumblr employed 411 people. Today, Tumblr mainly has a remote workforce, with just a small office in San Francisco.

The company's logo uses the Bookman Old Style font with some changes.

Funding

By 2011, Tumblr had collected around $125 million from investors. These investors included Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital, Martín Varsavsky, John Borthwick at Betaworks, Fred Seibert, Krum Capital, and Sequoia Capital, among others.

Tumblr's first funding round in October 2007 brought in $750,000 from Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures. In December 2008, they raised $4.5 million, followed by another $5 million in April 2010. Later, in December 2010, Tumblr raised $30 million. By August 2011, the company's value reached $800 million. In September 2011, they secured $85 million in funding led by Greylock Partners and Insight Venture Partners.

Revenue sources

In a September 2012 interview with Nicole Lapin on Bloomberg West, David Karp explained that Tumblr made money through ads. Their first ad campaign began in May 2012 after testing 16 different ads. Tumblr earned $13 million in 2012 and aimed for $100 million in 2013. That year, they spent $25 million to keep the company running.

In 2013, Tumblr let companies pay to show their posts to more people. Tumblr also sold special design templates for blogs.

In July 2016, ads started showing on all blogs by default, but users could choose to turn them off. Tumblr planned to introduce a money-sharing program later.

In February 2022, Tumblr offered a subscription for $5 a month or $40 a year that removed ads from users' blogs.

During a question-and-answer session in July 2023, the CEO shared that Tumblr was losing $30 million each year.

Criticism

Tumblr has faced some criticism over the years. One area of concern has been copyright issues. Users sometimes shared images that belonged to others without permission. Tumblr tries to handle this by accepting requests to remove such content.

There have also been security challenges. Tumblr works to keep the site safe.

Sometimes, the way people talk to each other on Tumblr can be unkind.

Tumblr has rules to stop content that encourages hurting oneself. When someone searches for certain words, Tumblr shows helpful messages with resources instead.

Some countries have blocked Tumblr because of concerns over certain types of content.

In early 2022, Tumblr settled a complaint with the New York City Commission on Human Rights regarding concerns about how its rules affected LGBTQ users.

Notable matters

In October 2011, then-U.S. President Barack Obama created a Tumblr account.

In late 2015, a user on the website became well-known after talking about collecting items from a graveyard. This created some discussion online and was called "Boneghazi"—a mix of the words "bone" and Benghazi. The user lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, and had shared this information in a Facebook group called the "Queer Witch Collective." Later, the story was shared on Tumblr by another person. In January 2016, law enforcement visited the user's home and found some items.